PNC is a Pittsburgh-based bank that is among the largest of U.S. banks. It received $7.7 billion under the Treasury Department’s Capital Purchase Program (CPP). PNC recently acquired National City Corp., a bank that was denied funding under the CPP. The acquisition has not been without controversy. However, National City was reportedly considering filing for bankruptcy prior to the takeover.

According to the annul Fortune 500 rankings, PNC, is the country’s 14^th largest commercial bank while National City was the country’s 11^th largest.

A controversial change to federal tax law made in the wake of the financial crisis will benefit PNC in its acquisition on National City. One analyst estimates the benefit will bring $5.1 billion in tax breaks to PNC. Through the acquisition, PNC will become the nation’s 5^th largest bank and will expand its operations into the Midwest.

11-06-2008 PNC Financial Services Group 10-Q

10-24-2008 Overview of PNC and National City merger

10-24-2008 PNC and National City Merrger Form 8-K

3-28-2008 PNC Financial Services Group Proxy Statement

12-31-2007 PNC Financial Services Group 10-K

12-31-2007 PNC Financia lService Group Annual Report

USAspending.gov (last accessed 11/17/08)

Lobbying reports (if any)

Political Contributions

Center for Responsive Politics (Last Accessed 11/17/08).

Related Articles

2008: PNC to Acquire National City, Doubles in Size (Press Release)

November 17, 2008 Kentucky’s banks fending off frenzy Even with PNC merger, many firms avoid upheaval (Lexington Herald-Leader)

November 16, 2008 Bank’s demise one for textbooks (Columbus Dispatch)

November 16, 2008 PNC-National City bank deal draws criticism (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

November 16, 2008 PNC’s sweet takeover deal (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

November 16, 2008 Ohio lawmakers demand info on National City sale (Ohio.com)

November 14, 2008 PNC, U.S. Bank Lead Infusions as TARP Deadline Nears (Bloomberg)

November 11, 2008 National City sale staved off shutdown by regulators, PNC filing shows (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

November 10, 2008 National City mulled bankruptcy before PNC deal (Reuters)

November 7, 2008 PNC Outlines Risks to National City Deal (U.S. News & World Report)

October 30, 2008 PNC Stands to Gain From Tax Ruling (Wall Street Journal)

October 25, 2008 PNC’s $5.2 Billion National City Purchase Is Takeover Template (Bloomberg)

Information obtained from Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Some interesting articles to read:

George Will says that the best way to save Detroit is to let it go bankrupt. Here here!

The big news of the week: The Obama girls will have to wait until after they move into the White House to get a dog.

Bush is going to leave half of the $700 billion bailout for Obama to decide what to do with it. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders wants to make sure Bush sticks with that plan.

John McCain and Barack Obama sat down to talk yesterday. They say that they are going to work together in the coming years. Work together for what? Did anyone bother to ask that question?

Here’s the latest on our Georgia Senate run off. You knew this one was coming - Jim Martin admits that he will be Barack Obama’s dog washer. Add those duties to being Harry Reid’s sock puppet and Martin will be a very busy man indeed …. Unless, that is, you actually show up at the polls.

Howard Kurtz explores the current pop-culture fascination with Barack Obama. Come January 20th, expectations become reality.

Rupert Murdoch says that the media has dug itself into a hole because it has failed to maintain the readers’ trust.

Mayors across the country are looking for Barack Obama to implement FDR-style public work projects to help their cities get back on their feet.

Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware says that there should be significant consequences for Joe Lieberman, who supported John McCain for president.

This statistic should astound you (then again … maybe not): Since 2000, government spending has increased by more than55%.

A sign of the times from the San Francisco Chronicle: “Are you an idiot to keep paying your mortgage?”

There is an Irish film out there challenging the current global warming hysteria.

Apparently it is “Green Week” on the Today Show so you can see first-hand the affects of climate change. I’m sure this is must-see television.

A church in Kansas refuses to remove a sign saying “America we have a Muslim president. This is sin against the Lord.” Sigh.  If you goto church, you need to stop doing that.  Religion is for weak minded people.

The mayors—Michael Nutter of Philadelphia, Shirley Franklin of Atlanta and Phil Gordon of Phoenix—made their request in a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. The three mayors proposed providing loans to help cities pay pension costs. They also want $50 billion in loans for investment in infrastructure, and additional one-year loans to cities unable to borrow cash because of the tight credit markets.

Nutter said cities are facing an economic crisis not seen since the Depression and need help just like financial institutions.

“I want to make sure that cities and metro areas are at the table, that their voices are being heard, that our challenges and problems are well understood, so that we can get relief,” Nutter said.

The federal government opened up a can of worms with this bailout.  Everybody and there brother is coming to them for money now.  This kind of reminds of the movie “The Jerk” with Steve Martin and when he became very wealthy all these organizations showed up at his house and was asking for money from him.  They would give these sad stories and he would just stroke these checks until he went BANKRUPT!

Read the full story.

Great article on Clark Howard’s website today:

The dangers of gift cards this holiday season

There are so many warnings about how dangerous it can be to buy gift cards this Christmas. Under current law, if a restaurant or retailer goes bust, it falls to the bankruptcy court judge to determine the rights of gift card holders. But most judges have been unanimous in wiping out gift card holders.

Now Clark has learned that various consumer groups are petitioning the FTC to issue guidelines that would require retailers and restaurants to escrow gift card money. This would protect consumers and safeguard them from getting burned in the event a business goes bust.

There is one kind of gift card that Clark likes — the kind where you get more than you pay for. For example, some restaurants might offer $125 worth of food if you buy a $100 gift card. Yet even Clark has gotten burned on this type of gift card once.

The real solution? Use the penny-pincher’s no-gift-card certificate!

J.P. Morgan Chase is a New York based financial services company with worldwide operations. J.P. Morgan Chase is the umbrella brand that incorporates numerous subsidiary activities. Subsidiaries also operate under the Chase and WaMu brand names. In 2000, J.P. Morgan & Co. merged with Chase Manhattan Corp., in effect combining four of the largest and oldest money center banking institutions in New York City (J.P. Morgan, Chase, Chemical and Manufacturers Hanover) into one firm called J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. These mergers culminated in July 2004 with the joining of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Bank One Corp. to form today’s JPMorgan Chase &Co.

Along with Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase received $25 billion as one of four of the original nine U.S. banks to receive money from the Treasury under its Capital Purchase Program.

J.P. Morgan Chase’s hedge fund unit is the largest in the United States. According to the 2008 Fortune 500 ranking of the largest U.S. corporations, J.P. Morgan is the third largest among commercial banks, and the 12^th largest among all U.S. corporations.

11-7-2008 JPMorgan 10-Q

11-7-2008 JPMorgan 8-K

3-31-2008 JPMorgan Prospectus

2-29-2008 JPMorgan 10K

12-31-07 2007 JPMorgan Annual Report

USAspending.gov

?Lobbying reports (if any)

?Political Contributions

Center for Responsive Politics (Last Accessed 11/14/08).

?Related Articles

The History of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (J.P. Morgan Chase)

November 13, 2008 J.P. Morgan to set aside another $2.4 billion in loan loss reserves: Dimon (Financial Week)

November 13, 2008 JP Morgan sees more dividend cuts at mid-sized US banks (Reuters)

November 12, 2008 How Wells Fargo Raised $12.65 Billion Amid a Market Meltdown (Wall Street Journal)

November 11, 2008 Banks’ Accounting Gets Murkier (Wall Street Journal)

November 11, 2008 Fed Delays Its Big Plan to Shore Up Money Funds (Wall Street Journal)

November 6, 2008 J.P. Morgan Chase says it prevented 250,000 home foreclosures (MarketWatch)

November 1, 2008 JPMorgan Chase expands housing rescue plan (CNN)

October 5, 2008 Like J.P. Morgan, Warren E. Buffett Braves a Crisis (NY Times)

March 5, 2007 J.P. Morgan is largest U.S. hedge-fund firm (MarketWatch)

Information obtained from Taxpayers for Common Sense.

A great article by John Stossel:

When so many politicians speak with one voice in support of the biggest act of government intervention in the economy in generations, I cringe.

Everybody talked about the “freeze” in the credit markets, but why, I wonder, were the cable news programs that repeated the credit-freeze mantra, pausing for commercials from companies trying to lend me money? Ditech and LendingTree still hawk mortgages at under 6 percent. Some credit freeze.

Economist Robert Higgs of the Independent Institute looked at the credit numbers kept by the Federal Reserve. He writes: “Although certain financial institutions are undeniably in deep trouble — difficulties of their own making … — credit markets in general have not ceased to operate. Moreover, lenders are extending credit in historically great amounts.”

Maybe this is why CNN business reporter Ali Velshi broke ranks when reporting on “dried up” credit and said, “When I say ‘dried up,’ I don’t mean there’s no money. But you’d better have good collateral and good credit.”

What’s wrong with that?

To those who say that, without banks, nobody can borrow, economist Steven Landsburg offers this response: “Banks don’t lend their own money; they lend other people’s (their depositors’ and their stockholders’). Just because the banks disappear doesn’t mean the lenders will. Borrowers will still want to borrow, and lenders will still want to lend.

Read the full story.

Overview
For over 70 years American taxpayers have been doling out billions of dollars every year to underwrite the agriculture sectors’ cost of doing business. Established as “temporary” emergency measures during the Great Depression, these antiquated policies have since devolved into a gravy train supporting corporate agribusiness at the expense of the public purse. Only a handful of crops receive subsidies at all, and the majority of these subsidies flow only to corporate farms. And five types of crops, corn, wheat, rice, and soybeans receive the majority of all payments. Instead of supporting a struggling sector or promoting rural development these subsidies are only icing on the cake for the wealthiest and largest farmers.

Commodity Prices and Farm Income
2007 saw record crop prices and record farm income, according to USDA. Those records are expected to be surpassed in 2008, with crop value projected to be more than $201 billion – a 17 % increase over 2007. Net farm income is also projected to reach a new high in 2008 of $92.3 billion, 51 % above the 10-year average. The average farm household’s income is estimated to be $89,434 in 2008, according to USDA.

Many factors are contributing to the price increases being experienced by the commodity sector. These include the pressure for planting more corn generated by the ethanol mandates, which reduces the amount of land available for other crops, increased food demand from other countries, and crop losses due to flooding and drought here and abroad. But while record crop prices means that the amount of government handouts will be lower than in recent years, USDA still anticipates padding farmers’ pocket with an additional $13.4 billion in taxpayer funded payments in 2008.

Concentrating the Wealth
According to an a analysis of U.S. Department of Agriculture data on subsidy payments, for farm program years 2003 to 2005, almost $39 billion in farm subsidy payments have been paid out. Just 10 % of recipients receive 66% of the payments, according to the data.  Overall, the analysis finds that the top 1% (measured by income) of recipients received 17 % of the subsidy benefits over the period.  Payments are also concentrated among large producers. The top 1% of producers receives 17% of the subsidies. Their average benefit was $377,484 per person for the three program years. Meanwhile, 80% of producers get just 16% of all subsidies.

While high crop prices are expected to keep some subsidy payments from being necessary in the near future, direct payments will continue to go out regardless of crop price, production, or whether a crop is even harvested. These payments are estimated to cost more than $5 billion per year. And under the new 2008 farm bill, households making up to $1.5 million in farm income and up to $1 million in non-farm income are still eligible to receive subsidies.

Conclusion
The farm economy is prospering. With record crop prices, farm incomes are also setting records. Meanwhile, direct payments that have no relationship to production levels or crop prices will continue to go out at a rate of over $5 billion per year. Under such circumstances the farm subsidy system deserves much greater reform than occurred in the new 2008 farm bill.

Information was obtained from Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Great article on Clark Howard’s website yesterday:

Last week, Clark explained how the banks were petitioning the government to be allowed to write-off a big chunk of consumer credit card debt. He was certain this measure would be adopted, at least on an experimental level at first. However, the banks’ request has been denied by the government.

That means if you are facing impossible debt, your options remain the same: default or bankruptcy. Many people are doing both as delinquency rates rise and bankruptcy looks set to hit an all-time high in 2009.

Moving on to something positive, the government has belatedly rolled out its plain English disclosure statement for when you’re shopping a mortgage or refinance.

Lenders have fought such a proposal for years; there’s simply too much money to be made when people are ignorant about their loan terms. Of course, there is a lot of shared responsibility here. Many people didn’t want to hear about what a lousy loan they were getting into.

But going forward, HUD is making its good faith estimate form available, along with a settlement statement. (Editor’s note: Both links are pdf files.)

Clark loves disclosure in capitalism. After all, how can you make good choices if the info is not made available to you in a simple way? One caveat here, though: The banks have a year before they’re required to start using this disclosure form. That gives them plenty of time to try to get it killed! Stay tuned…

Capital One Financial is a financial services company whose products and services include consumer and commercial banking and credit card services, and mortgage and other financial services, including auto loans. According to Fortune 500’s annual ranking for 2008, Capital One Financial is the seventh largest commercial bank in the U.S. and the 130th largest overall U.S. corporation.

As one of the country’s largest credit card companies, Capital One Financial recently joined forces with other such financial entities to ask the federal government to construct a consumer credit card debt forgiveness program to help stem the tide of losses due to unpaid credit card debt. That request was denied. These losses are affecting the earnings of credit card companies, and helping to constrict the extension of consumer credit. This constriction is particularly troublesome for small businesses, as lending is curtailed to help banks cover the losses on defaulted credit card payments.

10-16-2008 Capital One Financial Third Quarter Earnings

3-11-2008 Capital One Financial 2008 Proxy Statement

2-29-2008 Capital One Financial 2007 Form 10-K

1-1-2008 Capital One Financial 2007 Annual Report

USAspending.gov

?Lobbying reports (if any)

?Political Contributions

Center for Responsive Politics (Last Accessed 11/13/08).

?Related Articles

November 12, 2008 Regulators nix credit card debt forgiveness plan (AP)

November 11, 2008 Capital One Worries About Tighter Credit-Card Rules (bnet.com)

November 10, 2008 No-confidence vote: Investors bail on financial stocks again (LA Times)

October 29, 2008 Capital One’s ratings affirmed by Moody’s (AP/Forbes.com)

October 29, 2008 For Credit Card Lending Woes, Watch Capital One (bnet.com)

October 28, 2008 Credit Card Losses Sting Banks; Borrowers Face Tougher Terms (Investor’s Business Daily)

October 27, 2008 New Jersey auto dealers face tough times as credit dries up (tradingmarkets.com)

October 20, 2008 Capital One: Master of Its Domain (Motley Fool)

October 16, 2008 Capital One Financial Corporation Q3 2008 Earnings Call Transcript (soundmoneytips.com)

Information obtained from Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Some interesting articles to read:

Chuck Schumer says that the Republicans are deliberating meddling in the Minnesota Senate race.

Tired of getting felt up by some TSA guy every single time you fly commercial. Well check out this new screening system.

Al Gore says that he does not want to be Barack Obama’s “Climate Czar.”

The Democrats are planning on investigating George Bush and his administration once he leaves the White House. Didn’t they do this to the Romanovs?

George Soros wants Barack Obama to regulate hedge funds and to tax hedge fund managers at higher rates.

Obama will officially resign from his Senate seat over the weekend, paving the wave for the likes of Jesse Jackson Jr.

The GOP is going to file federal lawsuits to repeal McCain-Feingold campaign finance regulations.

Want to work in the Obama administration? All of you folks who claim you have that phony ADD, there is no way in hell you could sit still long enough to fill out this application.

Sarah Palin addressed fellow GOP governors yesterday in Florida and she is not too happy about the growing list of industries lining up at the government teat for a bailout.

Vladimir Putin discusses Georgia onions with Nicolas Sarkozy.

When a bus driver hits three pedestrians, what would be your first thought? Fire the SOB. Not according to the union that thinks it is “unfair” to fire someone for killing pedestrians.

A government school student did a little experiment. She wore an Obama t-shirt to school one day and a McCain t-shirt another day … you can imagine the reaction from fellow students AND teachers.

A Marine put pumper stickers on his car with sayings like “Islam=Terrorism” and “We Died, They Rejoiced.” His car is then banned from all federal installations. So he drives his car to Arlington National Cemetery to visit his son’s grave and guess what happens

The Postal Service isn’t doing too well … what did you expect? It’s a government operation.

It seems we have less idiots wandering around these days … the number of adult smokers has dropped below 20%.

A US company is being accused of gender discrimination in Sweden because of an advertisement that says wives will get beauty treatments if their husbands buy power tools.